Sealed Files
by Rinna Zeki-Xiphos
Summary: A sixteen year old Sephiroth has lived a monotonous life of his father doing horrible experiments on him...but his entire outlook on the world changes the day a kidnapped Cetra enters the labratory and his life and turns everything he knows upside down...
1. Chapter One

Chapter One

            _It's__ cold in here, but it always is.  The metal table I'm sitting on is freezing cold, and I wish he'd let me wear pants instead of shorts and t-shirts.  I guess this makes it easier for him to give me the shots or something.  I'm still cold, though._

_            He walks in smiling.  I smile hopefully--maybe today we'll do something fun, like play a game!  Dad never has time for games, though.  He's an important scientist who's working to improve the quality of the time we spend on the Planet.  I'm not really sure what that means, but he says it means he helps people out.  I think this is nice of him, but I wonder if his shots make other people feel as bad as they make me feel.  Maybe he doesn't give other people shots.  Maybe it's only me.  Mom's kind of like a scientist too, only she says she's more of a doctor.  I don't really understand it, because aren't doctors supposed to give you shots?  Maybe Dad's a doctor too. _

_"Hi, Dad!"___

_"Hello," he says.  He sounds bored.  Why does he always sound bored?  Am I a bad kid?  Do I make him bored?_

_"Are we gonna play a game now?"_

_"No, not now."___

_"Do you not have time?"_

_'"No," he says angrily.  "I don't want to play a game.  You don't need to play games anyway!  Games are for the weak, and you will not be weak!"_

_            I shut up fast.  He really wants me to be strong someday, but I'm not strong enough now.  I keep asking Mom when I'll be strong enough, but it makes her cry.  I wish she didn't have to cry all the time._

_"...then am I getting more shots?" I have to ask.  If I don't know, then I get afraid, and if I get afraid, he gets mad.  Being afraid is the same as being weak.  I wonder what it means to be really strong.  Everything I do is weak._

_"Yes," he says, holding all the shots.  I feel sick.  I always feel sick anymore, I never feel good.  He gives me these shots that hurt and then make me tired, but I'm not allowed to sleep.  Instead I have to run around the room.  It's all to make me stronger, but if this is what it takes to be strong, then I don't wanna.  _

_"Then do I have to run laps?"_

_"Fifty," he says, and now I feel like crying.  I don't feel good.  I don't want to do fifty laps.  I always lose count and end up doing even more.  I turn my head as he gets the shots ready.  He grabs my face and makes me look at my arm.  He says I have to face my fears, and I need to be a man and look when I'm getting shots.  They don't hurt, he says.  He doesn't know.  He's not the one that gets them.  I watch as the thin needle goes under my skin and he shoots some pink liquid into it.  I don't feel good.  I don't feel good anymore.  I try to look away again, but he just grabs me again and makes me look.  This makes him lose his grip on the shot, and it wiggles around a little.  It hurts, but I can't cry.  Crying means push-ups.  I don't feel like doing push-ups either.  Four more shots and Dad leaves without saying bye.  I think he's mad at me.  I guess I wasn't strong enough for him._

_            Mom comes in next, but she looks sick.  I think Dad's giving her shots too, but she won't tell me, even if he is.  She has band-aids and lets me pick out ones to put on my arm.  It doesn't matter to me...they're all brown, they all look the same.  One time, Mom bought some with superheroes on them.  Dad got mad and said those were for the weak.  Dad doesn't like me to use band-aids at all, but Mom always gets him to change his mind.  I pick one out anyway, just to make Mom happy, and she puts it on my arm.  I can already feel the thing in the back of my head moving.  I know it's not real--Dad says it's just my imagination.  But I used to be able to control my imagination.  Now it talks to me like it's a person, and I can't make it stop.  I told Dad about it, but he said that every kid felt like this.  _

_"Lucrecia!__  Get out!" Dad yells, and I get mad.   I don't want him yelling at Mom.  Mom didn't do anything to him.  Mom gets up and runs out, and Dad comes in with a weird animal.  He hands me what looks like a big knife.  It's a sword.  He's talked about them before.  He says I'll be really good if I practice.  I hope I'll be good someday.  Maybe then I won't be weak, and I can stop getting shots.  "Fight him."_

_"But it's--"_

_"FIGHT IT!" Dad screams, and the animal gets mad and charges at me.  I don't want to fight it.  It didn't hurt me.  But the second that it does, I suddenly don't feel like not hurting it anymore.  In fact, my 'imagination' starts talking to me, and I don't feel sick anymore.  I grab the sword and run around it, finally getting behind it.  I shove the sword all the way through it, watch it die...I feel really sick again, now, but my imagination likes it a lot..._

_"That was good, Sephiroth."_

_"Mom..."_

_"Don't make me think you're weak!"  he grabs another shot and quickly injects it.  I feel worse than ever now.  Why did I feel good for only a minute, and then feel sick again?  I let him give me the shots, and then take the medicine he gives me as well.  I don't feel like I can move again.  As soon as Dad leaves I sit down, and Mom runs in.  She picks me up and carries me to my room._

_"Happy birthday, Sephiroth," she whispers in my ear as she lays me down._

_            I was seven years old._

A/n: Well…feels shy for some reason  Hope you liked it…please go ahead and read the second chapter, please…review if you'd like, I'd appreciate it…

Squenix formerly Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy VII.  Since I'm still on the 2nd disc of the game, I'm a bit uneducated about exactly what all has happened…I mean, I understand a lot of it, but there's still a bit that may be inaccurate in this, so…please forgive me.

Xifa


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

            I open my eyes and look up at the white ceiling.  My room looks like a hospital room.  Maybe that's because it is.  I roll off the cot and look around the cold, impersonal room.  The only proof you have that someone lives here is the Masamune that I'm training with in the corner, a regular sword that I'm pretty good with laying beside it, and all my clothes in the closet.  Other than that, it's hard to tell that this isn't an unoccupied room.  The window's open and the curtains are blowing slightly with a polluted breeze.  I close the window.  I hate the fresh air.  It's like it's tormenting me, reminding me of life outside these ShinRa walls, life that I've never seen and will never get to see.  I look around my room.  No wrapped boxes, no cakes.  I'm not surprised.  I only had birthdays when I was a kid.  My last birthday had been my tenth.  Then Mom had died, and Hojo didn't like birthdays anyway.  Maybe I had hoped for something today because today was supposed to be special.  I guess nothing was special anymore, really.

            Today was my sixteenth birthday.

"I've survived," I said aloud to myself.  I didn't feel any different, turning sixteen.  I thought about all the other sixteen year olds across the world, getting their cars and learning how to drive.  It didn't matter if I could drive or not, since I'd never get to leave these labratory walls.  Hojo, whom I hardly even considered my father anymore, would probably keep me here as his 'strongest specimen' until the day I died.  What a life to look forward to.  I report to one of the workers for breakfast.  They give it to me and I hand them an old book in change for a newer one.  This was how I learned of the world outside of me...through textbooks that some of the nicer people smuggled into me.  It didn't matter too much.  Hojo didn't mind me studying.  That made me stronger too.  I almost wanted to stop after that, but my desire to learn about the world I could never see kept me reading.  I was hooked and couldn't stop.  After breakfast I walked down to the same room that I'd received shots in since my third birthday.  There was no use in rebelling anymore...it only brought more pain.

            I'd also devoloped an addiction to the shots.  No, _I_ hadn't...my body had.  This wasn't just in my mind.  Addictions were just in your head, your mind telling you you needed them.  Withdrawl was the effect of an addiction, in most cases.  I hated the shots, so I really didn't have the addiction...I knew I didn't need them...but my body felt that I did.  My body was addicted, and it went through withdrawls of the worst type.  One time, when I was fifteen, I'd locked myself in a bathroom and refused to take my shots.  Hojo got mad, but just let me do my own thing.  It wasn't six hours later and I'd come out, begging for them.  My body couldn't live without the strange pink fluids it was so used to.  I'd felt sick, suddenly couldn't breathe, threw up, the 'imagination' going wild and screaming at me.  Hallucinations of death, voices shreiking at me, my body shaking...it wasn't an experience I'd ever cared to have again.  I just went and got them.  Besides, I could handle them now.  I could even watch Hojo give them to me without feeling sick.  He was busy this morning, so he didn't waste any time getting them to me.  After that I reported to the only real teacher I had, one who was teaching me how to fight with a sword. 

            I enjoyed the fights I had with my sensei, but even they were losing their fun.  The only challenge left was endurance.  I had the skills down, the power, everything...the Masamune was just too heavy.  I hadn't quite been able to get used to it yet.  I would, someday, though.  So far I'd been the only person who'd had any luck learning how to use it.  I wished this was good enough to please Hojo.  Sadly, nothing probably ever would be.

            My sensei sighs after we finish our sparring.  I don't think he liked me much, either.  Mom had been the only person who did, and she was dead.  "There's nothing left for me to teach you, really.  And...I've kind of got to cut lessons short today.  However," he said, "you've been studying the Ancients, right?"

"The Cetra?  Yeah, why?" I frown.

"Well, they've got a real, live Ancient in the lab over there.  You should go check it out."

            I didn't really like the way they were talking about the person.  I know how it feels to be a specimen, and really didn't feel that they deserved to be talked about as if an object.  I wasn't one to argue with my teacher, though.

"Alright.  I guess I will," I shrugged.

"Lab C," he calls, and I walk towards it boredly.  Hopefully, Hojo won't mind me watching.  He doesn't seem to.  He wants me to be strong, but I think deep down he wouldn't mind if I took a liking in science like he did.  I didn't even want to, not after seeing his effect on the world.  I looked in the window, watching as Hojo talked to the girl.  She's pretty, I think to myself.  She looks about my age, too.  Maybe a little younger.  You didn't really see people like that often around here--everyone around here was always older than me.  The youngest person here was an intern, and he was 22.  The youngest girl was about 30.  I don't think I'd ever talked to anyone my age.  This Cetra girl...she has long brown hair, and nice green eyes.  Maybe I'll talk to her later.  I kind of feel bad for her...she's scared, but trying not to show it.  I know that look.  It's one I often see in the mirror in Lab B, one that used to come from me, before I decided not to be afraid anymore.  I watch Hojo with dislike.  He doesn't seem to be giving her any shots, which is good, but keeps asking her something she doesn't seem to know the answer too.  Eventually he jumps up, shoves her off the table, and leaves.  She obviously isn't expecting this shove, otherwise she would have gripped the table and braced herself so that she wouldn't fall.  And even if falling was part of the plan, she would have angled herself so that she wouldn't have hit her head like she did.  I walk into the supply closet across the hallway and grab an ice pack before I walk in.  She's still sitting in the floor, looking close to tears.  She has her hand over her head where she must have hit it at.  Not sure what to say, I gently remove her hand and press the ice pack against her head.  She looks up at me, seeming more than a little surprised.

"Are you...are you here to ask me what they're saying too?" she asks, voice faint.

"No.  I'm one of their specimen too," I inform her, wanting her to know we're in the same boat.  I'm not looking to make any enemies. 

"Are you a Cetra?"

"Halfway," I smile slightly.  "My mother, Jenova--"

            I stop.  Jenova.  I still like to think of her as my 'imagination'.  It gives me a sense of security, somehow.  Why had I just called her my mother?  She's speaking to me, in the back of my mind, but I'm too busy thinking to listen to what she's saying.  Jenova was a Cetra...and the pink injections Hojo had always given me were Jenova cells.  In a way, I was sort of a Cetra, because Jenova was a part of me.  But why did I just think of her as my mother?

"Er..." I pause, not sure how to get the words out.  The girl blinks, but sees my distress and conjures up another smile.

"My name is Aeris," she introduces herself, changing the subject.  "Who are you?"

"Specimen 5224 of Project Jenova," I answer.  This is the answer that Hojo has taught me to say, since that's all anyone in the lab ever needs to know.  Aeris looks taken aback, then giggles.

"You're funny," she laughs.  "Seriously!  What's your _real _name?"

            It felt funny that someone, after six years, actually wanted to know my real name.  The name my mother, my mother Lucrecia, not Jenova, had given me. 

"My name is Sephiroth," I say, the word feeling funny in my mouth, as if part of a foreign language that I'd studied just a little a long time ago, and forgotten.

"Sephiroth," Aeris repeats.  "That's a nice name."

"Thank you," I answer, wondering if this is normal conversation for people my age.  "I like your name too."

            She looks at me as if I've suddenly sprouted horns.  I feel stupid, and have no idea what to say to redeem myself.  I can almost taste the awkwardness in the air.

"Thank you," she says, sounding awkward herself.  "So, where are you from?  I live in Sector 6 of Midgar."

"Under the plate?" I ask, and she nods.  I've studied a bit about that, in the libraries.  It's supposed to be good or whatever, but I get the idea it's not all it bites out to be.  She's still silent, waiting on my answer.  I'm not sure how to explain myself.  "I'm from...um...here," I say, feeling stupid as ever.  "I've never really left the labratories, as far as I know."

"You were born here?" Aeris looks shocked.  "And you live here?  You've never left?"

"Not that I remember," I shake my head, and feel like I should inform her of the reason for my lack of things to say to her.  "You're actually the first person I've met that looks remotely close to my age."

"How old are you?" she asks.

"Today's my sixteenth birthday," I answer.  She looks very somber, and I wonder what her problem is.  I hope I don't sound like I'm pitying myself.  I'm not.  I'm just stating a fact...or so I thought...

"You've lived sixteen years and never left the walls of this place?"

"Yeah," I nod.  "And you...how old are you?"

"Fifteen," she says in response to my question.  "Going on sixteen."

"Well, hopefully you'll be out of here by your birthday."

"I still have a few months," she smiles at me, and I feel funny.  I blame this on a mixture of the shots and the awkwardness ot talking to her.  "They won't keep me that long.  It was part of the agreement."

            I feel bad for her.  There's no such thing as a bargain with the ShinRa scientists that any of them will uphold their side of.  She'll just have to learn the hard way, I suppose.

"Hojo...the man talking to you...hates weak people.  Always try and not be afraid.  Be strong."

"You understand," she looks up at me.  "I just...he wanted me to tell him what they were saying...and I can't always hear them..."

            I feel like I should hug her or something, but I'm not sure she'd like that, so I refrain from doing anything at all.

"He's kind of violent, too," I warn her.  "Anytime he starts to get angry, either hold on tight or brace yourself," I warn her, looking down at the ice pack that I was still holding against her head.  I'd forgotten about it.  The cold had numbed my hand, and it was the last thing on my mind in a moment like this.  "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she smiles.  "Espically after your first aid help."

            I wonder if she's being sarcastic.  I mean, I know she is, but I wonder if she's making fun of me or not.

"Lighten up," she laughs.  "I don't mean anything by it."

"Okay," I smile a little, which makes her smile.  I like her smile.  Sadly, she probably won't be smiling much, not as long as she's here.  I hear footsteps and stand up, taking the ice pack with me.  Ice packs are signs of weakness, and I wouldn't want him to catch Aeris with one.  "That might be him.  I probably should go."

"Oh.  Okay.  Will you come back and visit me, Sephiroth?"

            I nod.  I like talking to her.

"Where are you gonna be at?" she asks.

"Um, around...if I'm not in Lab B then I'm probably in my room, 36," I tell her, then open the door to walk out.  "Bye, Aeris."

"Bye, Sephiroth!"

            I barely make it out of the room and down two steps to the window looking into Lab C when Hojo stops me.

"What's the ice for, Sephiroth?" he frowns.  He's the only person who remembers I have a name, but I'd just prefer it if he'd call me 5224.

"I tripped and hit my head, and decided I'd use this to---" 

            I shut up, knowing about how long I could make an excuse before he went crazy on me.  This was the limit.  He glared at me.  I doubted he could tell I was lying--he wasn't a very good judge of that.  Luckily.  I didn't want Aeris to get in trouble.  I fake a gulp to look scared.  He's the only thing I'm supposed to fear.  Sometimes this isn't hard.  Fire's burning in his eyes as he advances towards me.  I try not to back down.  I don't want to be afraid of him, I don't...

"You gonna duck?" he practically hisses at me.  "Too afraid to take a blow?"

            I stare straight at him.  Dodging his attack had been part of the plan, but not now.  I didn't want him to have the glory of my fear.  The bastard didn't deserve it.  So I just stare at him as he grabs my almost-waist length white-haired ponytail and yanks it, jerking my head back.  He grabs the hair on the top of my head next and gets a good grip, smashing my head into the wall.  I wince.  I just can't stop myself.  Hojo smirks and shoves me to the ground.

"There's a reason to use an ice pack," he says with a sick pleasure in his voice, sauntering off.  Dark, crimson blood drips onto the white shirt I'm wearing.  I knew I should have worn the black one this morning.  I pinch my nose to stop the bleeding and walk over to the nearest water fountain, washing the blood out of my mouth.  It doesn't stop easily.  I couldn't remember the remedy to make it stop, either.  Rinse your mouth out with salt water?  I didn't know...Mom had taught me once, but I could hardly remember...  I probably looked like an idiot, running around with my nose pinched with bloodstains everywhere, probably leaking blood when I spoke...damn it...I start walking back to my room, but somebody's knocking on the window of Lab C as I walk by it.  Aeris.  Damn.  I hadn't wanted her to see me looking like this, either.  I ignore her and keep walking, deciding just to apologize later.  Hopefully she'd understand.  If not...well...I'd survived sixteen years without a friend and probably didn't need one now.  I made it to my room, head spinning a little.  I glance at the clock...it's noon...I swear under my breath again, knowing what this means.  Shots.  I look at the Masamune in the corner and wonder why I put up with this shit daily.  I can't bring myself to do it...everytime I even think about it, my 'imagination' goes crazy.  I hate that even worse, so I drag myself down to Hojo's office.

"Why should I give these to you?" he asks, twirling the shot full of the blessed pink fluid that brought both relief and pain to me.  "What have you done to deserve these, dear son?"

            I hate it when he calls me that.

"Please," I force the word out. 

"Tell me you love me," he laughs.

            I hate his twisted mind games.

"I love you," I say, emotionlessly.  I don't love him.  I don't think I'm capable of loving anyone anymore.

"Say it like you mean it," he teases, and when he realizes that's one wish I'll never succumb to, he pokes the needle into me, a little harder than usual.  I wince, but don't cry out in pain.  I should have expected that.  "Now leave," he yells.  I drag myself back down to my room, not wanting to get blood all over my white sheets.  I don't know why it matters, and the more I think about it, the crazier the notion becomes.  I lay down, hoping I'd completely stopped bleeding now.  I had locked the door even though Hojo probably had a key.  As a latter thought, I had shoved my desk in front of it.  I didn't feel safe, but at least with the desk in front of the door, I was able to let my eyelids close and succumb to sleep.

A/n: The other day I found myself wondering…what's the age difference between Aeris and Sephiroth?  I went and got my instruction booklet out of the shoebox that I keep all my instruction booklets in (I have a bad tendency to lose them) and read through, and of course his age is unknown ;  So I tried to guess…but I'm a horrible age-guesser.  I mean, if I were one of those people who guessed your age at a theme-park, people would be lining up to see me 'cause I'm always wrong.  So then I thought about fanfics I'd read, and how Vincent ended up being his father in most of them…but Vincent's age was only 27!  And since I didn't think Sephiroth was anywhere close to the age of, y'know, 9 or 10 during the game, I just assumed that it wasn't really that important of a fact and I'd wait for some FF7 guru to tell me just how old Sephiroth is -

I don't own any of this.  But wouldn't it be cool if I did?  Kudos to Squenix!

Um…thanks for reading!  Please stick with this…I'm rather fond of this story and it wouldn't be much fun if I was the only one . 

Love and peace,

Xifa


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

_"Wake up, Sephiroth!" a cheerful voice calls to me.  I roll over and pull the pillow over my head.  I don't want to wake up. _

_"C'mon, Sephiroth," I can hear the person talking smiling.  And if I knew anything, it was a sad smile.  Mom was singing a cheerful tune as she pulled open my curtains and opened the window.  I finally sat up, still tired from last night.  She grinned at me._

_"You're growing up more every day."_

_"I know.  You always tell me that," I try to smile, for her.  She deserves a smile, I think to myself.  _

_"I wish you'd do something with that mop of hair," she sighs.  After ten years without a real haircut, my hair now goes a little past my shoulders.  She pulls the hairband out of her own hair and ties mine back.  "There.  That looks better."_

_            I look at myself in the mirror, but don't really care what I look like.  It's not that important._

_"I've got your shots here..."_

_"Mom, do I have to take them?" I whine._

_"Yes, dear...it might hurt you if you don't," she sighs sadly and gives me my shots.  I always like it better when Mom gives me them instead of Dad.  She's a lot more careful and it doesn't hurt as much.  "Now, let's go see what he wants..."_

_"I don't wanna..." I said quickly.  "Please, Mom, please don't make me!"_

_"Sephiroth..."_

_"Mommy, please don't make me!  Please don't make me have to do all that!"_

_"Sephiroth..."_

_            She's crying now, so I shut up.  I hate it when she cries.  She takes my hand and leads me down to a room I've come to hate, letting go of me before we go in and Dad says we're weak.  He's standing in front of the door to what looks like a normal closet.  Only I know it's not a closet._

_"We're in phase two of a series of three phases of Mako exposure," Dad says happily into a recorder thing he has.  "The first phase took place at birth, the second at age ten, and the third will take place at age sixteen.  We're about to proceed with the exposure."  He clicks off the tape player and smiles at me.  "Ready?"_

_"No," I frown, feeling braver with Mom standing behind me.  I don't know why I feel braver.  I know she can't help me._

_"Get ready," he says, shoving me into the closet and locking the door.  I already feel like I'm choking.  I asked Mom what it was called when you felt like you couldn't breathe, and she said it was called suffocation.  So I feel like I'm suffocating, I suppose.  It's dark in here, and there's no escape.  There is no handle on this side of the door.  The floor feels funny because it's only a grate that stuff can come through.  I can see the glowing green stuff that Dad calls Mako begin to float up and surround me.  I try to hold my breath.  It makes my head spin and my eyes feel funny, and then I can't feel anything anymore.  I hate it and everyone knows it, but nobody cares enough to stop it.  The Mako floats up and surrounds me.  I try to press into a corner, but the closet is too small.  I'm surrounded.  I feel like I'm choking on the stuff.  I put my face in my shirt, not wanting to breathe it in.  It makes my skin feel cold and prickly, my hair feel weird too...I feel tired, and sink down the wall.  I can't stay awake any longer.  My shirt falls away from my face, and I don't have the energy to put it back over my face.  I breathe the stuff in freely, fighting to stay awake.  Eventually I fall into a weird type of sleep that doesn't really feel like sleep.  What feels like forever later, I wake up, Mom holding me, or at least trying to.  I'm not much shorter than she is.  She's crying, but that's nothing new.  Dad's smiling._

_"Ten laps, Sephiroth."_

_            I try my hardest to stand up straight, head hurting as I stumble through the first two.  They won't count.  They don't count until I start running, so as soon as I feel like I can, I start running, running until Dad says to stop.  Ten laps is never enough for him.  I always have to do more, so many that my lungs and heart feel like they're about to explode._

_            I was ten years old._

A/n: The next update will be on the 9th of August…unless I get 15 reviews, and then it'll be like, tomorrow XD  However, since that'll never happen, we can just patiently wait until Monday the 9th, yes?  -  Sephiroth is 16 in the chapters that aren't in italics…did I mention that already? 

Hey…I bought a used copy of FF7 at my local Gamestop about a year or two ago for about $9…so I sorta own it…except…it belonged to Squaresoft/Squenix first ;

Thank you for reading, so much!

Xifa


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

There is a hesitant knock on my door. I wake up, still feeling groggy after everything that had happened. I look down at my now blood-stained pillow. Damn. Now I'll have to figure out a way to get it washed, and that could prove difficult. I open the door just a crack--that was all I could do with my desk in front of it anyways. I peek out to see a pair of green eyes peeking back in at me.

"Sephiroth?" Aeris asks, and I have to admit I'm surprised to see her here.

"Um, come in," I feel awkward as I shove the desk aside. She comes in and I shut the door behind her. "What are you doing here?"

"Why was Hojo mad at you earlier?" she inquires, sitting down on my bed. I take a seat on the desk across from her.

"Um..." I find it hard to make up a lie for her. I don't know why. Normally I'm used to making up lies to keep myself out of trouble with Hojo, but I just can't seem to lie to this girl.

"I heard him say 'ice pack', so tell me the truth," she adds on quickly.

"I, er, told him it was my ice pack, and he gave me a reason to really need one," I say simply, not really wanting to talk about it.

"Why? It was mine. You got hurt for me," she frowns.

I wonder if she's mad at me for saving her from getting her head smashed into a wall. She's really something else.

"Yeah, well, I think my skull's thicker than yours," I can't even force a smile as I say this. It's not that funny, even though that had been the goal.

"Thank you, Sephiroth," she smiles. "I owe you one."

"Nah, don't worry about it. I guess we specimen have to stick up for each other."

"Sounds like a good rule to live by," Aeris agrees.

"Why'd you come here?" I finally have to ask her.

"Because I wanted to see if you were okay. Ick...you don't look so great."

"Thanks," I mumble, looking at myself in the mirror. I'd been sleeping, so my hair was everywhere and some of the blood had dried on my face. It's not like I'd been expecting visitors or anything. "What are you doing?" I frown as she opens up my closet door and looks through it. She glances at the bottom of it and finds the object she's searching for--a washcloth. She opens another door, the one that leads to my bathroom. She comes back out, the washcloth cold. I reach out to take it from her, but she ignores me and wipes my face clean herself. She's surprisingly gentle...it's been a long, long time since anyone's been this gentle with me...

"Close your eyes," she tells me, and I obey without a second thought. "Okay, done," she folds the washcloth up and puts it across the shower-rod in the bathroom to dry. She smiled approvingly. "There. You look a lot better now, if you'd just do something with that hair," she laughs.

I roll my eyes and pull the hairband off of my wrist. Mom's hairband. Lucrecia's hairband. I pull my hair back into it's typical ponytail. Some of the intern guys make fun of me. I don't care. I don't plan on getting my hair cut and it's in my way if I leave it down. Aeris nods. Guess that act got me on her good side for the moment or whatever...

"So, why are you here?" she inquires.

I'm not sure what the answer to her question is.

"Come again?" I ask.

"I'm here because I'm a Cetra and they want to hear what the Planet's saying. Why are you here?" she questions. "You said you were part Cetra...do they want to know what you hear, too?"

"Sometimes," I answer. "Only, I don't think I hear the Planet...I hear something else."

"Oh, really? Like what?"

"Like a voice, in the back of my mind..." I stand up and cross the room to my window. Looking out it never gives me any condolence, and doesn't now either. Sometimes I don't know why I bother. "Hojo always told me it was my imagination. Later on I learned it was more than just that..."

"What is it?"

"Jenova."

"What's J-en-ov-a?" she asks, struggling with the pronounciation.

"Jenova," I repeat for her. She says it under her breath and nods. "Jenova...I don't know who she is. But Hojo injects her cells into me...and I guess there's enough in my system now that it's kind of taking over."

Saying it aloud is like admitting something I've been trying to deny for the last year, now, ever since I really learned what was going on. Ever since I learned my imagination had a name--and that it's name was Jenova. I didn't want to admit that I'd probably someday lose control of my own body to her, but saying it outloud only made it all the more real. At just the thought of her, I could feel the foreign cells in my body rising, the ones that I had no control over. I shoved my hands in my pockets in an attempt to stop them from shaking.

"He injects you with the cells of another person?" Aeris sounds horrified. Why did I tell her...what the hell was I thinking... "And that person's practically possessing you?"

"Yes," I snap, not meaning to be mean. It just happens sometimes. Like I said, Hojo's all I'm used to dealing with. No wonder this bitter feeling's always around...even though it seems to subside some when I'm talking to her...

"Sephiroth, I'm--"

"No, it's my bad," I shake my head. "Shouldn't have gotten mad, sorry."

I don't really feel that sorry. I kind of have an idea that I never should have talked to Aeris...

"It's okay. So...what's the point of them doing this to you?"

"I don't know!" I yell. Well, that makes it obvious I don't feel that sorry... She sighs, but doesn't bother moving. What is her problem anyway?! "If you want to know that badly, then why don't you ask Hojo yourself?"

"Fine," she says indignantly. "Maybe I will."

"No, you won't," I say quickly. I have a bad feeling that Hojo doesn't want me around Aeris anyway. Probably mess up his Jenova project, or whatever it is that I'm such a vital part of. "You won't."

"How do you know? Maybe I will!"

"You can't!" I shake my head. "I'll have to hurt you if you do."

I feel like hurting her now.

"You wouldn't," Aeris tilts her head to the side, making her look innocent. It's hard to stay mad at her. "You wouldn't hurt me."

"But Hojo would, if he found out you knew. Not just you either."

Aeris is silent for a moment as she walks towards my door. She opens it and looks over her shoulder at me.

"I wouldn't have told him anyway, Sephiroth."

The door closes behind her. I notice she's taken my pillowcase with her, undoubtedly to clean. I appreciate the offer, but I do have a sink of my own and could have did it myself. Whatever. I walk back over to my pillowcase-less bed and sit down. There's a light scent of flowers here that I smell everytime I'm around Aeris...it's calming, almost, though I can't understand just exactly why...


End file.
